Darcy — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Ó Dorchaidhe
Meaning: 'descendant of the dark one (dorcha)'
Traditional stronghold: Meath, Galway, Mayo
Pronunciation: DAR-see; Irish Ó Dorchaidhe: oh DUR-uh-khee
History of the Darcy name
Darcy has two distinct sources in Ireland. The Norman d'Arcy family, from Arcy in Normandy, settled in Co. Meath after the invasion and held Platten and other manors for centuries. Entirely separate is the Gaelic Ó Dorchaidhe, 'descendant of the dark one', a sept of Partry in Co. Mayo and of east Galway; when a family of this stock rose to wealth in Galway city they adopted the Norman-looking spelling D'Arcy and were counted among the fourteen Tribes of Galway. Patrick D'Arcy of that family, the great Confederate lawyer of the 1640s, drafted the constitutional argument that Ireland was bound only by laws made by its own parliament. The name is now found countrywide in the spellings Darcy, D'Arcy and Dorcey.
Variants: D'Arcy · Dorcey · Darkey
Famous bearers of the name
- Patrick D'Arcy — Galway lawyer of the Confederation of Kilkenny who argued Ireland's legislative independence in 1641.
- Les Darcy — Australian boxing legend of Irish parentage, dead at 21 and mourned as a national hero.
- Ray D'Arcy — Kildare-born radio and television broadcaster, a fixture of Irish airwaves for three decades.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · Walsh · Lynch · Connolly · Burke · Clarke · Hughes · Keane